1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic musical instruments, and in particular, to operational factors for musical tone control operators for electronic musical instruments.
2. Prior Art
Electronic musical instruments are conventionally known for which the designation of tone generation control parameters is carried out by various timbre and rhythm designation switches, whereby when operation of these switches is detected, appropriate operational parameters are subsequently provided to the pertinent circuitry for each type of timbre and automatic rhythm function.
With another type of conventional electronic musical instrument, rather than an individual switch corresponding to each available timbre and rhythm control function, switches which control a number of timbre or rhythm control functions are provided along with a display panel for displaying the selected timbre or automatic rhythm pattern. With such a musical instrument a record is kept of the number of times an individual switch is pressed and a suitable timbre or rhythm control function is designated depending on the press count for a particular switch. Thus, the individual operating the electronic musical instrument can carry out designation of timbre or automatic rhythm functions by repeatedly pressing an appropriate designation switch while observing the display panel to verify that the desired function has been selected. As an example of this type of instrument in which one control switch activates a predetermined set of timbre or rhythm control functions based on the number of times the switch has been pressed, an implementation has been disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. SH058- 1833.
With the first above described approach to timbre and rhythm control designation in which a separate corresponding switch is provided for each type of timbre and rhythm control function available, for an electronic musical instrument having a large number of available timbre and automatic rhythm functions, the large array of operational control switches necessitates a control panel with a considerably large switch mounting surface area. For the operator, such an arrangement presents the problem of searching for the switch which designates a desired function among a large array of operational control switches, thus leading to operating characteristics for the musical instrument which are less than optimal. With the type of instrument in which one control switch activates a predetermined set of timbre or rhythm control functions depending on the number of times the switch has been pressed, the ordering of available functions often bears no relation to the frequency at which a given individual selects particular timbre or automatic rhythm functions. Thus for an instrument having a large number of available timbre and rhythm control functions, if frequently used functions are at the end of a long menu of which each individual entry is displayed on the display panel one by one, and through which the operator must navigate the entire length by pushing the designation switch one time for each earlier entry, it often becomes necessary to press a particular switch some large number of times in order to select a desired function, thus requiring significant time. This is particularly troublesome when the operator wishes to select or change a function in the midst of a performance.